Thursday, April 27, 2017

Something’s Cooking With North Korea: Entire Senate Invited To White House

It’s pretty rare for the White House to invite the entire Senate–100 senators–to receive a briefing by senior administration officials on one specific topic. From Reuters:

All 100 senators have been asked to the White House for the briefing by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said White House spokesman Sean Spicer on Monday.

Something’s cooking here. It’s notable that Gen. Dunford is one of the briefers. You don’t bring in the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs unless some military options are being kicked around.

Of course, like the USS Carl Vinson tail-wagging-the-dog, this could be another “show of strength” for Kim Jong Un. The North Korean government and its decisions have long been inscrutable and opaque for western intelligence. Trump may simply be giving Kim a run for his money, forcing him to try and parse Trump’s next move from a sea of unpredictable feints and threats.